John Mark Hall: Keeping security front and center

Nominated for: His work with the Integrated Security Program team and its partners, which are developing security measures for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s new campus at Fort Belvoir, Va.

First IT mentors: Denise Cochran and Walter Huxford, who placed me in challenging situations in which I had to raise the level of effort in order to succeed. They pushed me then, and they continue to push me today.

Latest accomplishment on the job: Being selected for my current job.

Career highlight: I have been fortunate to lead a high-performance team that made up the Integrated Security Program for Spawar Atlantic supporting NGA’s new Campus East. Through a rigorous systems engineering process, we provided solutions across all aspects of NGA’s security disciplines to meet their objectives of plan, deter, detect, mitigate, respond and recover.

Your advice for a government IT wannabe: Start simple. Take small successes and build momentum toward the bigger picture, and always remember that IT should make business easier not harder.

What you enjoy most about working in government IT: IT is about connecting, and whether it is connecting with people or connecting systems, it is all challenging and rewarding.